


His Lucky Numbers

by ReachFor24



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: But I Wanted It To Be Accurate, Financial Windfall, Getting Together, Lottery, M/M, Plz Don't Actually Sue, Too Much Information About Financial Planning, sue me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:26:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27662009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReachFor24/pseuds/ReachFor24
Summary: Before a kegster, while sent out to get supplies, Dex figures to try his luck and buy a lottery ticket. Now, with the winning ticket and his money problems solved for the foreseeable future, can he get the man he's been pining for over a year?(Hint: Yes, because happy endings are better)
Relationships: (mentioned) - Relationship, Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter, William "Dex" Poindexter/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 93





	His Lucky Numbers

Dex was doing his laundry in the basement of the Haus, checking his jean pockets when he felt a piece of paper. Pulling it out, he recognized the piece of paper: a Powerball ticket he bought on a whim after a hard-fought upset win against Boston College. Shocking the Eagles, who made it to the Frozen Four the previous year while Samwell lost early in the ECAC, felt fantastic. Himself and Nursey were clicking on defense, Bitty and Whiskey together scored two of Samwell’s three goals (with Louis going top shelf glove side in the 2nd period in between the starting winger and center’s goals), and Chowder shutting down the 3rd period to keep Samwell on top. 

As he was sent out to get more solo cups, Dex saw the lottery vending machine at the front of Murder Stop N Shop and figured why not. He was feeling good, and even though he knew it would be a waste of $2, he bought a Powerball ticket. He never checked the drawing amount or when it draws, never being a fan of the lottery. And through the kegster, forgot about buy the ticket completely. 

Pulling the ticket out, he put it in his pocket and figured he’ll checked the numbers once he’s finished putting this load into the wash. 

It ended up being that night, stripping down to get into his pajamas before he remembered about his ticket. Grabbing it from his pocket, he laid it on his bottom bunk and finished getting into his pajamas. Once dressed for bed, he pulled up the Powerball’s website, checking the winning the numbers and comparing them to the ticket in his hand. 

As he mentally read off each number, his pulse began to race, his eyes began to widen. As he read off the numbers, they matched. Perfectly. 

Dex let out a shuddering breath as he realized he won. Beaten 292 million to 1 odds. As he just began to understand what’s happening, his eyes focused on the ‘estimated jackpot’ on his ticket. 

$850 million. 

His eyes shot impossibly wide. “This can’t be possible” was the only thought he had, on repeat in his mind, as his eyes shot to his phone, confirming the jackpot he just won. He couldn’t believe it. 

As calmly as he could, he sat up from his bottom bunk and stood up, tightly grasping the lottery ticket. Mechanically, he grabbed his wallet, putting the ticket inside with the cash he uses for Sin Bin fines, and paused. 

Not thinking of anything, Dex on impulse put on a lighter jacket, perfect to stave off the night’s chilliness, and shoved his bare feet in a pair of sneakers. Ignoring anything and everything around him, Dex left the front door of the Haus with his phone, wallet, and keys. 

Eventually, he found himself by a bench on Lake Quad, the sky dark and the late-October chill settling into the night. With another shuddering breath, he sat down under the light post and tried to gather his thoughts. To do this, he listed the facts he knew. 

**Fact:** Dex bought a Powerball ticket. 

**Fact:** This ticket is the winning ticket to a $850 million jackpot. 

**Therefore:** Dex won a $850 million dollar jackpot. 

Thinking of the windfall, Dex let his mind wonder for a bit. He could help his family get out of debt. He would never realistically worry about money for the rest of his life. He could finish college without constant worry for his hockey scholarship. He could finally properly fix the Haus dryer. 

Dex chuckled to himself at the last realization, thinking of the decrepit machine he’s been tasked for keeping alive the past couple years. Maybe he’ll be able to fix it for good, or just replace it with something decent. 

Gazing at the Pond, the full moon’s light reflecting off the surface, Dex thought about the trouble he could have. He has a lottery ticket worth $850 million. He’s a target, and not just on the ice. Going to cash this in would have people coming out of the woodworks, people he’s never met, to ask for money. With various stories as to why they need it. 

And Dex knows, no matter how ruff his exterior, he wouldn’t be able to refute most of them. They’d bleed the windfall dry through a thousand cuts, until Dex would have somehow burned through the money with little to show for it. 

Dex mentally walked him off the edge of a panic attack, focusing on everything around him. What he can feel, see, taste, hear, smell. Once calmer, Dex pulled out his phone and began to do research. After 15 minutes he’s learned that this is the second largest jackpot to date and, with the only reported winning ticket being in Dex’s pocket, is the largest single-ticket winnings. He’s also learned that, if he takes the immediate cash value, taxes will bring down the winnings to around $300 million. Lastly, technically, he can’t accept the winning anonymously. But they can be collected by a trust, which will lead him to be anonymous by having a lawyer collect for him. 

Taking in a deep breath, and hoping he’s awake, Dex calls the only person who he thinks can help him and wouldn’t be after any money from Dex. 

“Hey brah! My freckled friend! My man with potential for carrotly flow, how are you doing on this night?” 

As Dex relaxed with Shitty’s overexuberance, he began to talk. “Hey Shitty.” 

After an anxious pause, Shitty dialed back his energy and became serious. “Dex? Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, I’m okay Shitty.” Dex cursed his inability to better-mask his nervousness, even if it’ll help move on the conversation. 

“You sure? Not about Nursey, now is it?” 

Dex audibly groaned, eliciting a chuckle out of Shitty. Dex almost wished he didn’t come out to Shitty, let alone tell him about his Big Crush on his d-man. But all the handholding Shitty did with him as he traversed his sexuality (bi, but leaning hard towards men) and his feelings for Nursey stopped Dex from regretting on telling Shitty. 

“No, not this time.” 

“Then what’s up, Dexter?” 

“Hypothetically, let’s say I bought a Powerball ticket after our win against Boston College. And hypothetically, let’s say that ticket is the lone winning ticket in the US, and I won a $850 million jackpot. Hypothetically, what would you recommend legally?” 

“Well, hypothetically, I’d start with a congrats, brah! After a thorough hypothetical congratulations, I’d ask if you know you can claim anonymously or not.” 

“Hypothetically speaking, a quick Google search says I could, but through a trust.” 

Somehow hearing the head nod, Shitty continued. “I’d say call me in the morning and I should help point you in the right direction for a good lawyer to help you set up this trust. Hypothetically, of course.” 

Dex let a laugh escape at the last sentence being tagged on. “Hypothetically, I’d say thank you, Shitty.” 

“No hypothetical problem, Dexalicious!” 

With that, Dex hung up, eyes rolling at the closing nickname. Feeling much calmer about the situation, he gets up from the bench and heads back to the Haus. 

Walking inside, he sees a worried Bitty and Chowder in the kitchen, with Bitty pulling a chocolate chess pie out of Betsy 2.0. Dex’s favorite. 

Knowing they’re worried about him, Dex takes off his jacket, draping it over a kitchen chair, and sits down, before speaking. “Go ahead, ask what you all want.” 

Bitty, taking off his oven mitts and his apron, asked first. “You okay?” 

“Yeah. I-I'm actually pretty good.” 

Bitty seemed to visibly relax at the answer, more honest than what he was expecting. Looking over at Chowder, he seemed less worried, but there was still a tension in his shoulders, showing he’s not as sure just yet. Dex tried to shoot him a disarming grin but seeing the forced grin on Chowder’s face proved it to be ineffective. 

Dex pulled out his phone as Bitty began grabbing a few plates to serve this pie. With quick work with his thumbs, he shot a text to Chowder, simply saying ‘Later’. Once received, Chowder looked up and nodded, before jumping in to ask Bitty about his day. 

After a slice of ‘I’m-worried-about-you' pie, Dex and Chowder cleaned up the dishes and headed upstairs and going into their separate rooms. Dex dropped off his jacket and take off his shoes, checking that Nursey was still in his study group at Founder’s, before walking through their shared bathroom and into Chowder’s room. 

As he walked in, he spotted Chowder cuddled up to his large shark plushie, a gift Nursey and Dex got him after their trip to Ikea for a second desk, on his San Jose Shark’s comforter. 

Dex, after debating on where he wants to sit, sat down on Chowder’s desk chair, rolling it to face Chowder’s body as he continued to cuddle with the shark. 

Dex looked up, taking in and releasing a deep breath, before he started. “This does not leave this room. Not anybody in the Haus. Not anybody outside of the Haus. Not even Cait.” 

Chowder just nodded an affirmative. 

Studying Chowder’s face and seeing him fully understand, he pulled his wallet out of his pajama pant pocket, pulling out the winning lottery ticket and handing it to Chowder. 

As Chowder read it over, with a confused look on his face, Dex spoke. “That is a winning lottery ticket for the last Powerball jackpot.” 

Dex studied Chowder’s face as he took in the information, watching his eyes widen in shock as he caught the jackpot amount written on the ticket. 

Chowder’s eyes shot up to meet Dex’s in surprise, shock on his face. Chowder then calmly handed the ticket back to Dex. Once Dex put it in his wallet again and had his wallet in his pocket, Chowder squealed and jumped out of his bed, tackling Dex in a hug. Dex hugged him back, willing to let Chowder be excited for him. 

Before long, Chowder broke the hug, getting back on his bed, and began asking questions. “This is swawesome! Any ideas on what you’ll use it for? Any idea how much taxes will be? Are you taking the annuity or cash now? Won’t everyone know when you accept the prize?” 

With a smile from Chowder’s excitability, he answered each question. “Yeah, a few ideas, mostly family stuff so far. Probably around half the jackpot. Take the cash and invest it around. And I already called Shitty about that. I should be able to use a lawyer to accept it as a trust and take money from the trust from there.” 

Chowder, with his questions sated, laid back in his bed, talking mostly to himself “This is much better than what I thought it was going to be.” 

“Um, what were you expecting?” 

Chowder shot up, realizing that he said that out loud. Trying to cover, he said “Uhh, nothing?” but not fooling anyone in the room. 

“Chowder, what did you think it was going to be about?” Dex said, a bit more forceful than he wanted to be, but wanting to know what Chowder was worried about. 

After a moment of thinking it over, Chowder visibly resigned himself before answering. “I thought you realized you were in love with Nursey.” 

Staring at his best friend, Dex was speechless for a few moments. Until he broke into laughter that Chowder would probably see as manic. 

After a full 5 minutes of laughing, broken up by trying to calm down but falling back into laughter, Dex finally calmed down. With tears in his eyes from how hard he was laughing, Dex finally spoke “I’ve known that for a year now, Chowder.” 

“Really? Why haven’t you done anything about it? Ask him out or something?” 

With a steadying breath, bringing his emotions down after that sudden laughing fit, Dex responded “Because I don’t think he’s ever looked at me like that. Fuck I think he still thinks I’m straight.” 

With an incredulous look, Chowder asks “How? He’s seen you date, right? You were with Paul last fall and Josh from the track team last spring!” 

“Yep. And I know Nursey’s met them. I think he just thought they were friends of mine, even after he interrupted a coffee date with Paul.” 

“Nursey may be hella oblivious, but he’s not that bad. Probably thinks you’re not interested in him.” 

“You remember Paul and Josh, right?” 

“Yeah, Paul looked like a discount Nursey and Josh is as much of an English nerd as Nursey, but generally nicer.” 

“Yeah. Fucking wicked obvious.” Dex knew this. He knew this for a while. Dex thought Nursey was hot since the Taddy Tour, and knew he was in love since the fall of his sophomore year. Tried to push it back with a couple boyfriends, neither of which worked out past a couple months because Dex was too busy pining for Nursey. 

With a sigh, Chowder gave his closing advice. “Look, just ask him out. Worst that will happen is he says no, and you fall back to how you two acted freshman year. But you both have matured since then, so I don’t see it going that badly.” 

“Yeah, I’ll ask him out eventually. Thanks Chow. I don’t deserve you.” 

“Yep!” Dex laughed at Chowder’s agreement on the last statement, as he headed back to his and Nursey’s room. 

Laying in the bottom bunk, Nursey presumably still out in Founder’s for his study group, Dex lets himself go to sleep, pushing his worries for tomorrow. 

*******

After that night, Dex let everything go back to normal. He called Shitty the next morning, without the hypotheticals, and recommended a lawyer to help him out. After a quick phone call, Dex visited the lawyer in Boston, with enough documentation proving he is in fact William Poindexter, and had a nominee trust set up. The lawyer collects the winnings, deposits them into a bank account for the trust, Dex has access to it, and that’s it. 

Though it takes time for the deposit to go in, with the state’s lottery commission having to collect the money from the US to eventually deposit. Until it’s deposited, Dex acts like nothing has changed. He lives in the Haus with Nursey, unwilling to act on his infatuation for his d-man and ignoring pointed stares from Chowder for him to act. 

And Samwell plays some beautiful hockey. Chowder gets a shutout one game, Bitty gets a playmaker in another game, and himself and Nursey are locking down in front of the goal for Chowder. 

All’s going well. 

Until he gets an email from the lawyer while working on his code in the Haus, saying the winnings have been deposited and that they’re accessible. Dex checks the amount, seeing his name by the dollar amount, and nearly passes out right there. 

$315 million. 

Already planned between him, the lawyer, and a fiduciary financial advisor, is to let the money build in lower-risk investments. Bonds, CDs, low-risk blue-chip stocks, with a small portion in an index-fund tagged to the S&P 500. 

Basically, Dex can live off the interest if he wanted to. One percent interest would be just north of $3 million. Everything that’s not liquid should give 2-3% per year. 

And what he has liquid immediately is ‘just’ $250,000 in a checking account. Enough to do what he wants to right now. Pay off bills for himself and his parents, do the repairs he wants to do in the Haus, and more than enough to not worry about money for the rest of his time in college. 

All Dex can do is close his laptop and move himself from his desk to his bottom bunk. Letting this all sink in again. 

Looking at the balance, with his name on the account, just makes it more real. 

Nursey breaks him out of his silent freak-out, coughing to get Dex’s attention and asking “All good?” 

Dex, laying in his bunk, moves his head to face Nursey, opening and closing his mouth as he tries to put his thoughts into words. 

Eventually, he comes up with “I think so?” his voice wavering. 

Watching Nursey, he sees him visibly think through what he should do next. His face going from worried to unsure to attempt at ‘chill’ and bouncing back to worry. After a full minute, Nursey, apparently already in his evening comfort clothes, walks over and lies down next to Dex. 

Wordlessly, Dex scoots over, as the two full-sized NCAA defensemen are laying together in a bed too small for both of them. Their bodies pressed together from shoulder to knee, Dex holding his own hands together on his stomach while Nursey has one arm behind his head and the other laying on his side. Dex feels himself heat up, blushing hard, as the object of his desires is lying in bed with him. Even if they’re fully clothed and only as an attempt to comfort Dex. 

Dex begins to take deep breaths, trying to calm himself down from everything. During a breath in, Nursey finally speaks. “You know you can always tell me. You don’t have to, but you can. Got your back, man.” 

Dex shudders out the breath, as he thinks of all of the things he wants to say. He knows how much money has shaped their friendship early on, Dex growing up lower-middle class while Nursey grew up in luxury. They’ve talked about it for hours throughout their time at Samwell, their different privileges. And one of the points Nursey had said that stuck to Dex was how he can’t change his skin color, but Dex could become wealthy. 

Which is exactly what happened, even if by dumb luck. 

With a deep breath, he untangles his hands and grabs Nursey’s free hand, intertwining his fingers with Nursey’s. Letting the breath out, he spoke. 

“I like you. Like, ‘more than friends’ like you. And I would like to date you and for us to be boyfriends. If you don’t, that’s fine, I’ll eventually get over my big crush on you, bu-” 

Dex’s ramblings are stopped by Nursey’s lips pressed onto his. Dex lets himself fall into the kiss, one hand still holding Nursey’s, the other limp on his side as Nursey moves on top of Dex, his free hand holding Dex’s face. 

Dex moves his free hand onto Nursey’s back, just below his neck as he opens his mouth, allowing Nursey’s tongue to slip in. Both moan as they deepen the kiss into something less chaste. 

After what feels like hours but is much too soon, Nursey breaks the kiss, a blinding smile on his face as they stare into each other’s eyes, foreheads pressed together. 

“In case you needed to know, the feeling’s mutual.” Nursey whispers into Dex. Dex snorts, knowing he’s signed up for this but loving it anyways. 

“How long have you wanted this?” Dex asks, his curiosity peaking at how much time they might have wasted. 

“Since last spring. H’bout you?” 

“Romatically? Last fall.” 

“Chill.” 

Dex rolls his eyes, mumbling how he’s literally just asked for this, eliciting a belly laugh out of Nursey. 

As they cuddle, Dex feels great, not wanting to ruin this moment. But he doesn’t want to hide anything from his boyfriend, especially one he’s been pining for over a year for. With a cough to clear his throat, Dex speaks. “There’s something else I need to say.” 

Nursey looks into Dex’s eyes, silently nodding for him to speak up. 

“Uh, I may have won the lottery a few weeks ago.” 

Nursey shoots him an unbelieving look before chirping “And how much was that? $4?” 

Dex, not taking the bait for the chirp, pulled out his phone and pulled up the total account balance for his jackpot winnings. Giving his phone to Nursey, he studies his face as he reads the total amount. 

“$315 million?!” Nursey gapes, not fully believing the number. 

Dex just nods, unsure of what to even say right now. 

Nursey, after silently handing his phone back, starts with the obvious. “Those things never hit!” 

“Except for the one time I play.” 

“Wait, when did you even buy a ticket?” 

“Uh, after the BC game. Felt good, even getting sent to Stop N Shop, so I bought a ticket there.” 

“Huh” is all Nursey said to that. 

After a few minutes of cuddling, Nursey began asking a barrage of questions. “Are you going to retire off it?” 

“Probably not. Try my hand at starting my own business instead. Got a couple ideas.” 

“How are you going to spend it?” 

“Start with my family. Pay off my parent’s mortgage, set some aside for my siblings for college or whatever. Live off the interest from the investments for now. After college I might buy some property, maybe rent them out or live in them.” 

“Who are you gonna tell?” 

“Right now, only you, Chowder, and Shitty know. Don’t plan on telling anyone else besides my parents for now. Siblings will learn once they learn they have money set aside for them for the future, but the fewer that know the better. Made sure to accept it quietly too.” 

With a grin on his face, Nursey asked his last question. “Gonna replace the dryer?” 

Dex chuckled, knowing how his war against the Haus dryer has been so bad it’s made it into issues of The Swallow. “Fuck yeah. That thing’s gone. Might update the heating here with something efficient too.” 

Nursey cuddled more into Dex’s side, saying to his shoulder “You know I don’t care about your money. It’s yours, through and through.” 

“Yeah, I know. But now I get to properly spoil you.” 

“Oh you think so? I’ll just have to spoil you harder.” 

“’Spoil you harder?’ Is that even proper English, Mr. English-major?” 

“Shuddup and hold me, Dexy.” 

With an eyeroll and a smile to the nickname, Dex did just that. 

**Author's Note:**

> I did too much research into winning the lottery I don't live in (and probably never will), but I wanted it to be accurate. To the best of my knowledge, this is relatively accurate, but I'm sure I messed up somewhere.


End file.
